Psychology Commons^™

Posttraumatic Growth Following Cancer: The Role Of Cognitive Processing, Anxiety, Depression And Perceived Threat, Jennifer M. Caspari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored several predictors of posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a sample of 169 breast, prostate and colorectal cancer survivors. The first aim was to determine the influence of Anxiety, Depression and Perceived Threat (defined as the combination of Life Outlook Threat, i.e., the degree a cancer diagnosis challenged a survivor's assumptive world, and Physical Threat, i.e., threat to mortality and physical well-being) in the prediction of Positive and Negative Cognitive Processing. The second aim was to examine the effect of Anxiety, Depression, Perceived Threat, and Positive and Negative Cognitive Processing in the predication of PTG.

Cancer survivors who were …

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial Of Behavioral Rehearsal On Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills, Wendi F. Cross, David Seaburn, Danette Gibbs, Karen Schmeelk-Cone, Ann Marie White, Eric D. Caine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds and the target of school-based prevention efforts. Gatekeeper training, a broadly disseminated prevention strategy, has been found to enhance participant knowledge and attitudes about intervening with distressed youth. Although the goal of training is the development of gatekeeper skills to intervene with at-risk youth, the impact on skills and use of training is less known. Brief gatekeeper training programs are largely educational and do not employ active learning strategies such as behavioral rehearsal through role play practice to assist skill development. In this study, we compare gatekeeper training as usual …

School Refusal Behavior: A Phenomenological Study Of Latino/A Children's Experiences, Mary Ashley Angelo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School refusal behavior (SRB) is a subset of absenteeism in which children either altogether refuse to attend school or experience great difficulty remaining in class for the duration of the school day. Child motivated SRB is a growing problem that now affects between 5% and 28% of children and adolescents at some point during their lives. The effects of SRB can extend well beyond the classroom. Long-term, SRB can lead to delinquency and psychiatric, occupational, and marital problems in adulthood. Additionally, children who consistently exhibit SRB are more likely to drop out of school, thereby limiting their career choices and …

Multinational Teams: The Relationship Between Work Values And Productivity And The Moderating Effect Of Degree Of Operational Integration, Kelly C. Kinnebrew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study gathered data from 147 employees in two U.S. headquartered multinational manufacturing companies. Participants responded to questions about their work-related values, perceptions of the productivity of their work teams, and the degree of operational integration between firms‟ foreign affiliate offices and their U.S. based headquarters. Additionally, analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between team productivity and psychic distance, which is a measure of country-level cultural differences. Work values were assessed using The Values Scale (Neville & Super, 1989), perceptions of team productivity were assessed used an instrument by Kirkman and Rosen (1999), degree of operational integration was …

Aging And Selective Attention In Causal Learning, Melanie Waldrop Asriel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigated age differences in generalization of causal value employing similarity as a cue to causality. Exemplars from six food categories (A+, B-, C+, D-. E+, F-) were presented to both young and older adults in two contiguous training phases. Training Phase 1 included exemplars from categories A+, B-, C+, D-. Training Phase 2 included exemplars from A+, B-, E+, F-. Foods in the “+” categories were paired with an outcome of sickness and foods in the “-” categories were not paired with sickness. Tests of causal judgment and exemplar recognition were conducted. For causal judgment, individual exemplars experienced …

Comprehension Of Functional Support By Enculturated Chimpanzees Pan Troglodytes, Anna M. Yocom, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Studies of causal understanding of tool relationships in captive chimpanzees have yielded disparate findings, particularly those reported by Povinelli & colleagues (2000) for tool tasks by laboratory chimpanzees. The present set of experiments tested nine enculturated chimpanzees on three versions of a support task, as described by Povinelli (2000), during which food rewards were presented in different experimental configurations. In Experiment 1, stimulus pairs included a choice between a cloth with a reward on the upper right corner or with a second reward off the cloth, adjacent to a corner, with the second pair comprised of a cloth with food …

Evaluation Of A Program To Reduce Bullying In An Elementary School, Jordan Elizabeth Davis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bullying is one of the most pervasive challenges in schools across the world. This investigation is an evaluation of a school’s attempt to address the large number of incidents of bullying. Materials from the Bully Free Classroom (BFC) by Allan Beane (2009) served as the intervention curriculum for 21, fifth grade students and six teachers. A 14-week (with the exception of school breaks), six lesson intervention was implemented with three groups of students: two groups identified as perpetrators and one group of victims. Teachers received training on bullying knowledge and how to appropriately report bullying-related incidents. Pre and post …

The Unconscious Influence Of Mortality Salience On Younger And Older Adults, Ellen Johnson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Past research has examined the many ways individuals behave in response to unconscious primes. For instance, unconsciously activating stereotypes leads people to exhibit behavior that parallels the target stereotype (e.g., Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Dijksterhuis & van Knippenberg, 1998). Priming methodology has also been extended to inducing mortality salience, such that specific behaviors emerge in response to thinking about one’s own death. Two theories, socioemotional selectivity theory and terror management theory, hypothesize how individuals cope with thoughts about the end of life. The present study attempted to extend past research by comparing older and younger adults’ responses to unconscious …

Mental Rotation Of Dynamic, Three-Dimensional Stimuli By 3-Month-Old Infants, David S. Moore, Scott P. Johnson

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Mental rotation involves transforming a mental image of an object so as to accurately predict how the object would look if it were rotated in space. This study examined mental rotation in male and female 3-month-olds, using the stimuli and paradigm developed by Moore and Johnson (2008). Infants were habituated to a video of a three-dimensional object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle around the vertical axis. After habituation, infants were tested both with videos of the same object rotating through the previously unseen 120° angle, and with the mirror image of that display. Unlike females, who fixated …

A Longitudinal Study Of Fetal Tissue Transplantation Surgery For The Treatment Of Parkinson's Disease: Can Quality Of Life And Optimism At Baseline Predict Patient Outcome 10 Years Later?, Emily B. Fazio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive condition that affects the physical, emotional, and social functioning of individuals. Freed et al. (2001) conducted a double-blind sham-controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of fetal tissue transplantation for the treatment of advanced PD. The authors of that study examined the effects of the surgery across the dimensions of physical and neurological functioning. A quality of life (QoL) study was conducted to determine if there were differences in QoL when comparing those who received the fetal tissue transplantation with those who received the sham surgery (McRae et al., 2004).

While there is …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between Conscientiousness, Self-Awareness, And Occupational Stress Outcomes In Culinary Chefs, Tanja M. Hinterstoisser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether, and to what extent, Conscientiousness, as part of the personality construct, and Self-Awareness, as part of the emotional intelligence construct, influence the occupational stress outcomes of absenteeism and burnout in culinary chefs. The research method and design selected for this study was a quantitative correlation and regression. The researcher selected the Self-Awareness factors from the ECI - 2.0, and the Conscientiousness factors from the NEO-FFI to measure the individual and interactive effect on absenteeism and burnout. The experience of burnout itself was measured the Maslach Burnout Inventory - GS, and absenteeism …

Factors That Influence Team Identification: Sport Fandom And The Need For Affiliation, Sarah L. Absten

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study was conducted to examine whether priming for a need for assimilation or the need for differentiation influences an individual’s identification with a particular team. Team Identification is defined as “the level of psychological attachment felt by a sports fan toward his or her favorite team” (Kim & Kim, 2009; Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). Participants for the current study included 80 undergraduate psychology students, recruited through Study Board at Western Kentucky University. Participants completed the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) and were randomly assigned one of two scenarios where they were asked to transcribe two memories based …

The Effect Of Choice In Exercise Intensity On Affect And Cognition, Annegracien Delaunay

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While there are studies linking positive psychological outcomes with exercise, few have focused on choice as a moderating factor. The research that has examined choice as a moderator yielded mixed results. Currently no research has looked at the impact of choice of exercise intensity on the psychological benefits of acute exercise; specifically, affective and cognitive gains. According to Landers (2008), acute exercise refers to a single bout of exercise usually lasting a short duration, whereas chronic exercise refers to long term repeated bouts of exercise (e.g., weeks, months, or years). Participants in this study consisted of 117 collegiate psychology students. …

Exploring The Developmental Potential Of Leader-Follower Interactions: A Constructive-Developmental Approach, Sorin Valcea, Maria R. Hamdani, M. R. Buckley, Milorad M. Novicevic

Business Faculty Publications

Researchers in leadership have long recognized the important role of leaders in developing the competencies of followers.More recently, however, scholars have begun to emphasize the pivotal role of followers in the development of leaders.We use constructive developmental theory (e.g., Kegan, 1982; Loevinger & Blasi, 1976) to suggest that both leaders and followers influence the development of the meaningmaking systems of their counterparts in leader–follower dyads. We argue that a combination of challenge – in the formof delegation, participation, and feedback – and support – in the form of positive leader–follower relationships – works to promote the development ofmore complex meaningmaking …

Citalopram Improves Metabolic Risk Factors Among High Hostile Adults: Results Of A Placebo-Controlled Intervention., Thomas W. Karmarck, Matthew F. Muldoon, Stephen B. Manuck, Roger F. Haskett, Jeewon Cheong, Janine D. Flory, Elizabeth Vella

Faculty Publications

Hostility is associated with a number of metabolic risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including waist—hip ratio, glucose, and triglycerides. Along with hostility, many of these measures have also been shown to be associated with reduced central serotonergic function. We have previously reported that a citalopram intervention was successful in reducing hostility by self-report assessment (Kamarck et al., 2009). Here we examine the effects of this serotonergic intervention on metabolic risk factors in the same sample.

Dubowitz Syndrome: A Review And Implications For Cognitive, Behavioral, And Psychological Features, Rebekah S. Huber, Daniel Houlihan, Kevin J. Filter

Psychology Department Publications

Dubowitz syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by micorcephaly, short stature, abnormal faces, and mild to severe mental retardation. Growth retardation occurs both intrauterine and postnatal. Behavioral characteristics include hyperactivity, short attention span, and aggressiveness. Behavior problems include difficulty feeding, sleep disturbance, and bedwetting. Individuals with the disorder have displayed shyness, fear of crowds, and dislike of loud noises. A high-pitched or hoarse voice is common. Deficits have been found in speech and language skills, reasoning and memory skills, self-help skills, and psychomotor functioning. Ocular, dental, cutaneous, skeletal, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological, immunological, and hematological medical difficulties have been …

Parent Efficacy And Parent Involvement In Parents Of Preschool Children, Jennifer Murkli

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between parent involvement and parent efficacy in parents of preschool children. Twenty parents from a suburban, a predominantly White private preschool participated in the study. Parent self-reports of involvement and efficacy beliefs as they pertain to their preschooler's learning and development were assessed. On average, parents reported medium parent efficacy and medium parent involvement. Results of the study demonstrated a significant relationship between parent involvement and parent efficacy. The relationship was moderate with a positive direction. Thus, the relationship demonstrated to a modest degree that greater parent efficacy is related to greater parent involvement, …

Psychological And Social Correlates Of Hiv Status Disclosure: The Significance Of Stigma Visibility, Sarah E. Sutterheim, Arjan E. R. Bos, John B. Pryor, Maartje Liebregts, Herman P. Schaalma, Ronald Brands

Faculty Publications – Psychology

HIV-related stigma, psychological distress, self-esteem, and social support were investigated in a sample comprising people who have concealed their HIV status to all but a selected few (limited disclosers), people who could conceal but chose to be open (full disclosers), and people who had visible symptoms that made concealing difficult (visibly stigmatized). The visibly stigmatized and full disclosers reported significantly more stigma experiences than limited disclosers, but only the visibly stigmatized reported more psychological distress, lower self-esteem, and less social support than limited disclosers. This suggests that having a visible stigma is more detrimental than having a concealable stigma. Differences …

Perceptual Scale Expansion: An Efficient Angular Coding Strategy For Locomotor Space, Frank H. Durgin, Z. Li

Psychology Faculty Works

Whereas most sensory information is coded on a logarithmic scale, linear expansion of a limited range may provide a more efficient coding for the angular variables important to precise motor control. In four experiments, we show that the perceived declination of gaze, like the perceived orientation of surfaces, is coded on a distorted scale. The distortion seems to arise from a nearly linear expansion of the angular range close to horizontal/straight ahead and is evident in explicit verbal and nonverbal measures (Experiments 1 and 2), as well as in implicit measures of perceived gaze direction (Experiment 4). The theory is …

The Effect Of Alcohol On Attention To Social Threat: A Test Of The Avoidance-Coping Cognitive Model, Amy K. Bacon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Avoidance-Coping Cognitive model (Bacon & Ham, 2010) proposed that Socially anxious individuals may be particularly vulnerable to the anxiolytic effects of alcohol through reductions in attention biases to Social threat. Elements of this model and were tested in the present study, in which undergraduate volunteers (N = 41, 27% female) completed two dot probe tasks with photographs of angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Participants were randomized to either consume a moderate dose of alcohol (target BAC 0.06%) or a non-alcohol control beverage between the two dot probe tasks. Results indicated no evidence of a bias in attention to …

Anxiety Sensitivity, Non-Acceptance, And Coping Motives For Alcohol Use, Jennifer Ann Shaver

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study probed the concurrent relation of two theoretically associated risk factors for coping-motivated substance use - non-acceptance of negative affect and anxiety sensitivity - with coping-motivated drinking frequency (drinking to cope). A two-factor model of coping-motivated substance use put forth by Brown, Lejuez, Kahler, Strong, and Zvolensky (2005) suggests that both non-acceptance and the physical and Social dimensions of anxiety sensitivity might be related to coping motives for substance use broadly. The present study represents a particularly stringent test of this model in the field of alcohol use motives. It was hypothesized that the individual facets of AS …

Imagery And Contamination Aversion, Thomas Grover Adams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Contamination-based obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the most common form of OCD. Recent research indicates that the emotion of disgust may play a primary role in the etiology and maintenance in contamination-based OCD (CB-OCD). However, little is known about the effects of disgust on compulsive behaviors related to CB-OCD (e.g.,, hand-washing). The present study utilized an imagery-priming paradigm to test the effects of experienced disgust on compulsive hand-washing. Seventy-eight participants were selected for high or low symptoms of CB-OCD. Following response training, participants were submitted to a disgust or neutral imagery task. Following the imagery task, participants rated their subjective fear …

Examining The Relationship Between Fact Learning And Higher Order Learning Via Retrieval Practice, Pooja Kay Agarwal '01

Doctoral Dissertations

The development of higher order skills is a desired outcome of education. Some believe that higher order learning can be improved directly, whereas others argue that higher order learning can be improved via the enhancement of factual or conceptual knowledge. The relationship between fact and higher order learning is often speculated, but empirically unknown.

This project examines whether retrieval practice via quizzing, a strategy typically used to enhance fact learning, can be used as a strategy to improve higher order skills in both laboratory and applied settings. In the current study, higher order skills were considered to comprise the understand, …

Cultural Perspectives On The Interactions Between Nutrition, Health, And Psychological Functioning, Frances E. Aboud

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Food and nutrition occupy the daily thoughts of most people, particularly the 178 million children who are malnourished and have been since their first birthday. While malnutrition is directly and indirectly responsible for one-third of child deaths in developing countries, overweight has been declared the number one health problem in other countries. More food is therefore not necessarily better when talking about health. This reading presents information on the major nutrients important for health and psychological functioning, including energy, protein, vitamin A, zinc, iron, and iodine. It also discusses how cultures differ in their food preferences and their beliefs about …

Older Adults And Online Social Networking: Relating Issues Of Attitudes, Expertise, And Use, Elise Hernandez

HIM 1990-2015

The social transition to older adulthood can be challenging for elderly individuals and their families when isolation poses a threat to well-being. Technology is currently providing younger generations with an opportunity to stay in contact with social partners through the use of online social networking tools; it is unclear whether older adults are also taking advantage of this communication method. This study explored how older adults are experiencing online social networking. Specifically, this research addressed how older adults' attitudes towards online social networking are related to their expertise in using computers and the internet for this purpose. A survey methodological …

Investigating The Relationship Between Assertiveness And Personality Characteristics, Laura K. Kirst

HIM 1990-2015

Assertiveness is a learned fundamental interpersonal communication skill that helps individuals to meet the social demands of society. Although various personality factors associated with assertiveness have previously been studied, no recently published studies were identified in the review of assertiveness literature. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between assertiveness and the five factors of personality (extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness), self-esteem, social anxiety, and shyness to update past research findings. Participants completed the College Self-Expression Scale, the IPIP representation of the NEO PI-R, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation …

Moral Cognition In Children An Examination Of The Possible Impact Of School Didactic Philosophies, Smit S. Shah

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects that Montessori and public school environments have on the moral cognition of children and to assess the differences using modified moral dilemma stories. Through the analysis of these children's responses on moral dilemma stories this thesis reveals that there are stark and statistically significant differences in the children's responses on two of the three stories. The Montessori children scored higher on the morality level and the answers reflected altruism over authority on story one and story three. Through these results the researcher surmised that school environment can have an impact …

Stress Associated With Law Enforcement Work And Its Effect On Conjugal Relationships, Patricia S. Peace

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in stress from associated with the occupation of law enforcement exists across the officers' relationship domains. The sample consisted of 51 participants that was comprised of both law enforcement officers and their significant others. Unlike past studies, this study included those that were married, divorced, in a civil union, single, or cohabitating. Based on past research it was hypothesized that the stress placed on officers and their significant other would be higher than that of other relationships. An anonymous survey was sent out to a several departments. …

Effect Of A Human-Teacher Vs. A Robot-Teacher On Human Learning A Pilot Study, Melissa A. B. Smith

HIM 1990-2015

Studies about the dynamics of human-robot interactions have increased within the past decade as robots become more integrated into the daily lives of humans. However, much of the research into learning and robotics has been focused on methods that would allow robots to learn from humans and very little has been done on how and what, if possible, humans could learn from programmed robots. A between-subjects experiment was conducted, in which two groups were compared: a group where the participants learned a simple pick-and-place block task via video of a human-teacher and a group where the participants learned the same …

Cognitive Processes For Infering Tonic, Steven J. Kaup

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Research concerning cognitive processes for tonic inference is diverse involving approaches from several different perspectives. Outwardly, the ability to infer tonic seems fundamentally simple; yet it cannot be attributed to any single cognitive process, but is multi-faceted, engaging complex elements of the brain. This study will examine past research concerning tonic inference in light of current findings. First I will survey the recent history of experimental research in cognitive functions for memory retention and expectation as they relate to the recognition and learning of musical schemas. Then I will discuss distributional theories associated with the tonal hierarchy of major and …